Annular Ligament

[Benny15]

Hello!
My 18 year old New Forest mare has recently tore her annular ligament in her left back leg. She has torn an annular ligament before on a different leg when with a loan home, however I don’t know a lot of the details. Twice now, she has been incredibly lame in the morning, but fine a couple of hours later. When asking the vet about this they said I should strictly not be hand grazing her (which I was doing for 15 mins or so a day) but another vet told me that was okay and she was allowed to go in a grass pen. I have also read that other people who’s horses have torn an annular ligament have been on fields rest. My mare has had 6 weeks of laser treatment and is being rescanned next week. I was just curious to know if anyone else has had any experience in a similar situation and if so, were they instructed strict box rest or were their horses allowed to go in a grass pen. Also has anyones horses had the operation and is it worth doing if this laser treatment has not worked?

 

[Zoeypxo]

Hi, i know of a horse who had his annular ligament cut under GA.
I believe he had annular ligament thickening (ALS)
He had 6 weeks of strict box rest after surgery with hand walking everyday. Started at 5 min per day up to half an hr.
At the 6 week vet check there was no improvement.
He also had fetlock arthritis in the same leg which did not respond to steroid or athramid. He was still lame on 4 bute a day so was put to sleep 4 months after surgery.
We still have no answers on why he didn’t improve but he didnt and vets said they couldnt do any more for him.
Hopefully you get some more positive outcomes.

 

[spotty_pony]

My boy strained an annular ligament a few tears ago so not quite as bad as yours but he was quite lame at the time. He was on box rest for about a month I think but we were allowed to hand graze. He also had a steroid injection into the ligament when it was scanned to help it to settle down. I cold hosed it twice per day for 20 mins each time and bandaged it when he was on box rest. Then he was turned out in a small paddock before being allowed out fully.

 

[meleeka]

Mine had the op. He came sound eventually and had no more issues. If you do a search there’s a few theads on the subject, but for me, the worst bit was the hand walking afterwards, which is vital. My cob didn’t mind box rest, but went from a dope on a rope to a fire breathing dragon when asked to walk calmly. That alone would put me off doing it again, unless I could send to a professional rehab yard.

 

[w1bbler]

Have a look at indiba treatment.

 

[AandK]

My 25yo had the op in August 2015. His annular issue was secondary to a distal sesamoidian ligament tear. He also had PRP for that at the same time. 2 weeks box rest until stitches out, then into a pen for 6 weeks with daily hand walking starting at 5 min, building up to 30min by adding 5 min each week. If it had just been the annular then he would have been able to continue building up the work but he then had 2 months field rest to continue healing the other injury. He was sound at the end of the two months and made a full return to work, which was low level Eventing.

 

[Ditchjumper2]

My hunter damaged his annular ligament. He was never badly lame and due to size wqs left out. A summer at grass and he was sound fine and resumed hunting. He remained sound but after a couple of years was PTS as the ligament kept caring resulting in him tripping which eventually meant he was unsafe to ride.